Senators Back Low-Power Radio

Ryan Singel
06.05.04

The movement to introduce low-power radio stations onto the FM dial in urban areas got a boost Friday from two powerful senators who introduced a bill allowing federal regulators to license small stations.

Sens. John McCain (R-Arizona), chairman of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, and Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), the ranking member on the Judiciary Committee, introduced the measure, which they hope will lead to the introduction of hundreds of community radio stations that can reach listeners up to 3.5 miles away.

"I look forward to hearing more local artists, local news, local public-affairs programming and community-based programming on low-power FM radio stations throughout the country," McCain said.

McCain has been a longtime proponent of low-power radio stations and has fought against increasing media consolidation rules.

The new legislation (PDF) seeks to undo an appropriations rider passed in December 2000 by Congress, which was persuaded by large commercial broadcasters that local radio would likely interfere with their radio signals. Congress directed the Federal Communications Commission not to grant licenses until the FCC studied interference issues.

In February, the FCC told Congress that an independent study conducted by MITRE Corp. found that low-power stations "do not pose a significant risk of causing interference to existing full-service FM stations."

In response to the finding, McCain drafted the Low Power Radio Act of 2004, which would lift congressional "third-adjacent minimum distance requirements."

Those rules say that if there is an existing radio station at 91.3 on the FM dial, no new radio station can be established at 90.7 or 91.9 within 90 kilometers. These restrictions have made it impossible for any low-power station to be licensed in any of the top-50 radio markets, said Pete Tridish, technical director for the Prometheus Radio Project, a nonprofit group dedicated to low-power radio.

Under the proposed rules, both of those frequencies would be available for low-power stations.

Community radio activists hope the bill will eventually lead to a flowering of small broadcasters in urban areas where the radio spectrum is dominated by large commercial stations.

"It will make a pretty dramatic change for mid-sized cities, and the largest 10 radio markets could get an additional 25 stations," Tridish said. New Orleans, for example, would have room for five new stations.

She pointed to a Hmong station in Fresno and a farm workers' station in Florida as examples.

"Through what low-power stations have gotten out on to the air, there are a lot of new voices out there, and they are local and not connected to a large conglomerated group," Pierson said. "This bill opens up the possibility of getting some new, local and underrepresented voices in urban areas."

Despite the backing of two powerful senators, the bill will likely not sail through Congress without a fight.

The National Association of Broadcasters, which led the struggle to require more study, disputed the methodology eventually used in the study and believes McCain's bill will inconvenience, not help, listeners.

"Listeners should not be subjected to the inevitable interference that would result from shoehorning more stations onto an already overcrowded radio dial," said Edward O. Fritts, the group's president and chief executive.